The long list of Philadelphia owners who appealed their assessments this year includes working-class homeowners, out-of-town landlords and big-name banks.
Even some politicians worry about their own soaring tax bills in 2023.
At least three current lawmakers — including two city council members — appealed against their personal residences or rental properties. The appeals list also includes perennial appellant “Condo King” Allan Domb, who resigned from City Council in August to run for mayor but still manages a sprawling real estate portfolio.
Philadelphia police have tried to lower their tax bill in the past, with varying degrees of success. City officials have a say in the city’s budget and tax rates. MPs Kenyatta Johnson and David Oh, who appealed their assessment this year, joined Domb in budget talks to increase the relief package to offset the impact of the reassessment.
To be clear: Elected officials have the same right to appeal their assessments as any other property owner.
The three-year gap between the most recent reassessment and the city’s booming real estate market has caused tax bills to soar this year, while the price shock has sparked a flood of appeals not seen since the city’s controversial reappraisal in 2014.
» Read more: Thousands of Philly homeowners are challenging their property values. Low-value homes are underrepresented.
The calls by three politicians — Johnson, OH and State Rep. Mary Isaacson (D., Phila) — who own homes of different values in vastly different neighborhoods highlight some of the challenges raised by the first citywide reassessment in three years. problems, and the city-wide comprehensive evaluation method.
That’s why they say they are attractive.
Kenyatta Johnson: Why is my house worth more than my neighbor’s?
Johnson was upset to learn that the city believes his Point Breeze rowhome and nearby rental properties are now worth a combined $1.2 million, more than double the previous assessment from 2020.
The Democrat’s personal home estimate nearly doubled, from $446,500 to $871,800. His argument echoes a common claim in appeal cases: that it didn’t match similar properties on his block.
“I believe the market value of my home is the highest of any similar three-story property on my block, yet the OPA’s assessment is more than $300,000 higher than those similar properties,” Johnson said in a statement.
To build a success case before the Board of Tax Revisions (BRT), property owners must identify comparable properties to demonstrate that their assessment was an inaccurate outlier.
Records show that some properties with similar characteristics in the Johnson neighborhood had similar assessment coverages, while others did not. Council members filed unsuccessful (FLR) appeals in 2019.
This time, Johnson was victorious. In mid-December, nearly three months after appealing, OPA gave his home a lower assessment and he withdrew his formal BRT case. (OPA offered similar resolutions to some appellants ahead of the hearing; Johnson’s office did not immediately provide new values when asked Tuesday.)
He said he faced an ethics review last year for failing to disclose his income, and his appeal against the rental property is still ongoing, he said.
Both of Johnson’s properties reflect a larger trend: Owners of higher-priced homes are more attractive, even though their valuations are more accurate than those of lower-priced homes. An Inquirer analysis found that while 55 percent of residential properties in Philadelphia were assessed for less than $200,000, those properties accounted for only 36 percent of property appeals submitted to the city.
David Oh: “I live in a very rough neighborhood”
City Council members earn more than $136,000 a year, more than double the median household income in Philadelphia.
Oh, and a Republican who said he could afford the tax hike on his southwest Philadelphia home’s assessment, which rose 82% from $154,600 to $281,600. But he said he appealed in principle.
“I live in a very rough neighborhood,” said Oh, who was stabbed in front of his home in 2017, “and people don’t pay that much to live there…I can afford taxes but my neighbors can’t and shouldn’t .”
Homes in Oh’s neighborhood were previously valued at between $98,000 and $150,000. They range from $213,000 to $281,000, according to the new appraisal.
“What’s in our neighborhood? We’ve got kidnappings, we’ve got stabbings, we’ve got murders. We’ve got kids being shot. We don’t have amenities … It’s not a wealthy neighborhood.”
City Councilor David Wu
Owners of lower-value homes in Southwest Philadelphia’s Oh District are less likely to appeal than residents of Johnson’s rapidly gentrifying Point Breeze neighborhood.
If he wins the appeal, his next tax bill will drop. However, it won’t directly benefit other properties on his block unless their owners also appeal. (This year’s deadline has passed.)
But if he wins, the council member argued, his neighbors “could use that as a basis to lower [their] Evaluate” next time.
Mary Isaacson: ‘I’m just like every other normal person’
Isaacson, a Democrat, has watched her Northern Liberties neighborhood grow from a gritty outpost north of Center City to one of the city’s most affluent. She now represents one of the wealthiest real estate tax bases in the city, which stretches from Fishtown to Society Hill to Queens Village.
But as a resident, Isaacson said she worries that tax increases on the councilman’s base salary of about $95,000 will squeeze her income. This year, the two-story brick rowhouse she and her husband bought nearly 20 years ago has a reassessed price of $556,200, up 36 percent from $407,600 in 2022.
She argues that the soaring prices did not take into account the condition and age of her home, which she now lives in a newly built luxury townhouse.
“I live in an old house that hasn’t been renovated in years. On the other side of Fairmount Avenue from my house is a full city block of new high-end homes—it’s fantastic and brings a Lots of lovely neighbors coming. But what they can afford is different. I’m just like every other normal person.”
State Rep. Mary Isaacson
Isaacson said she has long been critical of the city’s assessment methods, and records show she has appealed successfully at least twice since 2014.
Isaacson participates in the homestead exemption, which now deducts $80,000 from the taxable value of any homeowner’s primary residence. Taking the deduction into account, the city estimates her tax bill will be about $6,666 this year, up from $5,076 last year.
A spike like this could hit some homeowners’ bank accounts, she said.
“When people have these fluctuations, it’s a pretty big burden that you’re putting on them,” she said.
